Stellar First Line Mini Contest

It’s giveaway time! However, this is not going to be your average Rafflecopter entry. Nope. This time we’re going to do something a little different. On last night’s episode,  award winning author Shiloh Walker talked about loving the intro of her new novel HEADED FOR TROUBLE.  It got me thinking about how important it is to have a stellar first line. Jill Haworth also touched on this on her recent article and I can’t help but think that since it’s coming up so damn much that maybe we can have some fun with it? How many of us read past a crappy first line? Okay, I do, but I also admit when that first line is made of win, I’m hooked from that moment on. I LOVE it when a first line draws me in.

So I want all your made-of-win first lines. That’s right. Say hellloooooo to the Stellar First Line Mini Contest. The first line doesn’t have to actually be from your novel or current W.I.P. Make one up! In fact, I’ll let everyone have a mulligan. You can enter TWO first lines. That doesn’t mean a first sentence and then one to follow it up. They have to be SEPARATE first lines that would belong in SEPARATE books, ya dig? Also, only one line.  If you have more than one period, it’s more than one line. If you’re em-dashing or doing anything else to make two sentences one, I’ll know.

Yes, I am that good.

Make them witty, fun, gritty, dark, or whatever you want. Just make it a fantastic first line that will draw me in and be like, “Oh shit, where’s the rest of the story?!”

You may be asking–but why I am I doing this? What’s the prize?

 

The winner, chosen by me based on totally subjective awesomeness of their first line, will receive their choice of two novels from the following list:

Doing Harm – Kelly Parsons

Bones Never Lie – Kathy Reichs

Rules of Entanglement – Gina L. Maxwell

A Tale of Two Centuries – Rachel Harris

The Collector — Victoria Scott

Bitter Spirits — Jenn Bennett

Love and Other Unknown Variables — Shannon Lee Alexander

Anomaly — Tonya Kuper

How To Tell Toledo From The Night Sky — Lydia Netzer

Due to exuberant shipping fees I can only open the physical copies to U.S. entrants. HOWEVER, because I love my international peeps too, if I pick yours, I will gift you an ecopy of ONE of the above novels via Amazon or BN.

REMEMBER:

To enter you must reply to THIS blog post. *points down at the comment section*

You can enter TWO first lines, but they have to be for separate novels.

You don’t have to use the lines from your WIP.  You can totally make up new ones.

This is a completely SUBJECTIVE giveaway, so if that’s not your thing, don’t enter.

NO PUBLISHED FIRST LINES. I mean, come on, that’s kinda cheating.

ONE LINE. NO EXTRA PRETTY GRAMMAR TO TRY AND MAKE TWO SENTENCES ONE.

Have fun with it!

I will end the competition Friday, September 25th. That should give you guys ample time to play around with it. I’ll go over the first lines that weekend and announce the winner Monday September 28th.

Venture forth and create those first lines!